EPA to District 95: Don’t use our logo

Despite having a partnership with the EPA for improving indoor air quality at schools, Lake Zurich Unit District 95 has been ordered to stop using a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency logo on material it publishes about the effort.

Chicago-based EPA environmental engineer Jeanette Marrero received a complaint and issued the directive about three weeks ago, following the logo’s appearance in the March and February newsletters that updated the District 95 community on the air-quality initiative. Marrero said such an order is uncommon.

District 95 has been part of the EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program since 2010, spokeswoman Jean Malek said Friday. The EPA effort is meant to be a comprehensive resource to help schools maintain a healthy environment in buildings by identifying, correcting and preventing air problems.

Malek said considering the tie-in, it seemed appropriate to include the plantlike EPA symbol with the air-quality building inspection updates in the superintendent’s corner in Newsworthy95. The emailed newsletter is sent to students’ parents and others who live in the district.

“We were so heavily involved in the (air quality) program that I naturally thought it would be good for people to know it was an EPA Tools for Schools program,” Malek said.

EPA officials received the complaint from a District 95 resident claiming the logo use was deceptive, Malek said, which led to the directive to stop using it. The symbol was removed from the March newsletter available on the district’s website.

Acting on the complaint, Marrero alerted District 95 about how EPA employees can’t allow the logo to be used to endorse any “nonfederal” product, service or enterprise. She said only Energy Star has statutory authority to promote products with the EPA logo.

Malek said District 95 has had a strong relationship with the federal EPA. She said the agency even paid her travel expenses so she could represent the district at the Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools symposium at the elegant Grand Hyatt Washington from Jan. 13 to 15.

School board members, administrators, teachers and health association representatives were among those to attend the conference that focused on protecting the indoor air environment for students. EPA officials say poor air quality in schools not only can affect student and employee health, but also performance, attendance and concentration of the children.